The Lehigh football team will close its spring practice period with its annual Brown and White Game (it's actually more of a scrimmage) on Saturday morning at Goodman Stadium. The proceedings begin at 10:45 a.m. with the presentation of the Jimmy Gum Memorial Scholarship.

Coach Andy Coen said that he expects to run about 60 to 70 plays, but it won't be a live tackle session.

Here are some things to note as Lehigh ends the spring with more healthy players than it has had in several seasons and also has the extra boost of adrenaline coming off a Patriot League championship and a 9-3 season:

Things to like

• Coen said he was pleased overall with how things have looked. "Early in the spring, the defense had an upper hand. But it has kind of evened off. You want to come out of the spring with the offense and defense being kind of equal. That gives you the sense you're going to have a pretty good team."

•The defensive front has been impressive and it's a significant area for a unit that must improve against the run. Last year, opponents gained 5.1 yards per rush against Lehigh and 205.8 yards per game. "We tweaked some things in our package and we're trying to get guys doing a better job at the line of scrimmage," Coen said. "Our front four will be one of our strengths."

Things to worry about

•The linebacking corps, which lost the most talent with the impending graduations of Evan Harvey, Colton Caslow and Pierce Ripanti, the top three tacklers on the team last year. "We've still got a lot of competition there," Coen said. "I was looking for guys to solidify their positions there, but they haven't. We're going to have to go through training camp to figure some things out. The inconsistency of some guys is driving some of the coaching staff a little crazy."

•The offensive line missed fifth-year right tackle Zach Duffy as he recovers from surgery. Coen said he'll be ready to go once camp begins, but the concern is the overall depth. "Our starters are good, but we may be forced into playing a young guy which is unsettling," Coen said. "We're good in the pass protection with the backup guys, but I don't know if we're physical enough with them to run the ball."

•Coen has liked the competitiveness and unity of the team. "In terms of the overall excitement, it was one of our better springs," he said. "We have a larger number of guys out and that means we've been able to compete a lot better. However, the attention to detail is something we continue to need to work on. There are certain guys at certain positions who we'd like to be further along than they are right now."

Players who have looked good

•Northwestern Lehigh graduate Cam Richardson got a chance to show what he can do at wide receiver and "really stepped up" in the eyes of Coen. "He had been a really good scout team player for us and won a scout team award last year and he has continued to improve," Coen said. "Luke Christiano was somebody we were really excited about and he was doing well, but Luke got hurt and that gave Cam an opportunity to get in there and play and he really did a good job."

•Junior defensive back Donavon Harris has improved his game, along with sophomore Marquis Wilson. "It's hard to recruit really good guys in the secondary, but Marquis is really going to help us," Coen said.

•Coen singled out the play of sophomore defensive tackle Matt Prendergast, who was on the scout team last year, but has drawn some attention during the spring. Senior Harrison Johnson has also become a force on the defensive front. "He's bigger, stronger, faster," Coen said.

•Matt Timochenko has had a good spring and looks like he's the No. 2 guy at quarterback behind Brad Mayes. "In high school [at Wilson West Lawn], he was actually a very good runner and capable of pulling the ball down and making a play. That will give us a different dimension because Brad certainly is not that type of guy like Nick Shafnisky was. Matt can make plays with his feet."

•Liborio Ricottilli, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound, has played well this spring and may have earned a spot at right guard.

They said it

Zach Duffy has been out while recuperating from surgery. But the fifth-year senior has liked what he has observed.

"We've done a real good job of keeping everything up tempo and we've made the transition well to some of the new coaches," he said. "Coach Coen and the coaches who were here already, along with the players, have done a good job of welcoming them and that has made for a smooth transition.

"We've been trying to preach consistency on and off the field. There haven't been any issues, for the most part. The playoff loss to New Hampshire was the result of being inconsistent, so we've been preaching conistency whether it's in the weight, film room stuff, during the drills ... everywhere. It's the little things that will be important at the end of the day."

Defensive tackle Jimmy Mitchell, another fifth-year player, was encouraged by a healthier spring and excited about the new four-man front.

"It has been one of our healthier springs, which has allowed us to do more 11-on-11 and that has helped the guys up front a lot," Mitchell said. "In the past, we've been down linemen on both sides of the ball and that minimized what we could do. This year, we've been able to get after it more. We got a lot more work.

"The change in scheme to four down linemen has made us a lot stronger up front and helped us against the run, which was a big area of concern last year. Scheme-wise, it hasn't been nothing too crazy. Football is football and you're always going to have a gap, but we have some new techniques and we've been able to move guys around and play a lot faster."